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Apartment Fire Hero
Location: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Date: October 26, 1987 Story It was 9am on October 26, 1987 in the residential area of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 16-year-old Fred Thomas was home from school with a sore throat in an apartment he and his sister, Nicole, were living in with their aunt. Another resident in the complex was Brenda Toole and her three young sons. "Christopher and Shawn always come into the bedroom before I get out of bed. I got up and told them to get their drinks out of the refrigerator," Brenda said 5-year-old Shawn and 3-year-old Christopher went down to the kitchen as they did every morning. Brenda didn't know that on this morning, there was a natural gas leak in her apartment. Shawn opened the refrigerator door, and there was an explosion. "I knew that one of the boys were screaming and yelling 'Fire!' so I jumped up," Brenda remembers. Smoke was already billowing through the apartment. "I went downstairs, saw the fire, and panicked. My way out was through the kitchen, and I was in a state of shock because a normal person would have to get the children first, and I didn't." Fred woke up to Brenda's cries for help. "I heard a scream outside, looked over to the next apartment, and the 6-year-old was on the second story balcony. He was like screaming. I went in the building and that's when I noticed the fire. It was going up the stove and creeping up the wall." "I ran up and Shawn was screaming. His mother had him by the hand, and she held the baby. She didn't want to come downstairs. She was at the top of the stairs, frantic, so I grabbed her by the arm and gave her a tug, saying 'Come on, let's go', because I knew the fire was up against the wall. We got outside and she started yelling that Christopher was still in there. I just kept thinking I have to save him, and to try so I went back in not knowing anything." "My heart was in my throat. I thought the place would blow up, because everything is gas," Nicole said. As she watched, Fred went back in the burning building. "I ran up the steps and I just looked in the window on the side. I have never seen anything like this in my whole life, and that really scared me," Nicole said. The call for help came in at 9:06am. From the local fire station, firefighters and paramedics were launched immediately. "When I ran back in the second time, I got to the top of the stairs and went in the first and second room, but he wasn't in there. And I heard the gas shooting up and I thought the building was going to blow up," Fred said. "I wasn't worried about the building. I was just worried about the children getting out safely, and I was just praying to God that they get out of there," Brenda said. Meanwhile, Fred found Christopher sitting on Brenda's bed. "When I walked in the room, I didn't think he knew me well. That's how scared he was until I said 'Christopher', put my hands out to him, and grabbed him. I tucked him under my shirt, because a little toddler like him would hold his breath with all the smoke, and he didn't know what was going on. When I got out of the room and looked down the hall, there was that black smoke, and when I saw it, I thought I had no chance of getting outside because I couldn't see anything," Fred said. "It was bad all around. The flames were shooting up the stairs. We didn't think he was going to make it," Nicole said. "It was getting very hot in there, and difficult to breathe. I couldn't save my breath; I was short of it. I got to the bottom of the stairs, and the wall was all orange. As soon as I started through the kitchen, I saw the door; I was seeing daylight. I just went right through it and onto the porch," Fred said. "The scariest moment was when I saw Christopher burned, and feeling helpless," Brenda said. "Fred met us at the ambulance before we got to the door," a paramedic remembers. "We not only made sure the child was out, but we went to him afterward." "If Christopher stayed inside, he would've died. The smoke in that building would've killed him or anyone else in there without any doubt," a fire warden said. "I don't consider myself a hero. I think if somebody was in that predicament, I would think they would do the same thing." Fred said. But most people don't agree. They think he did something special and gave him numerous awards for risking his own life to save Christopher. "If it wasn't for Fred, Christopher might not be alive now," Brenda said. Christopher underwent therapy for the burns he received. "That's one thing about burns; they make a nice recovery. You won't recognize it once he's grown," said a burn therapist. Fred was in the Navy and graduated 3rd in his class at Radioman's School. "Even though it were a tragedy, it would be a lot worse. Because there are not too many things to see in what seems to turn out good. And this did," Brenda said. Category:1987 Category:Pennsylvania Category:Burns Category:Gas Leaks Category:Fires